RIKKI Clarke today warned that Warwickshire must show a ruthless streak when they face Worcestershire in the championship at Edgbaston starting tomorrow.

Worcestershire are about to be relegated from Division One and, while there is a slight chance of Lancashire getting sucked into the scrap, there are four counties – the Bears, Hampshire, Yorkshire and Sussex – under serious threat of joining them through the trapdoor.

Warwickshire need to win one, possibly two, of their last three games to be safe. Their best chance comes this week against their ailing local rivals and all-rounder Clarke insists the Bears must display a killer instinct.

They have won only one four-day game this season but have twice badly let teams off the hook – Yorkshire at Scarborough last week and, most culpably due to a spate of dropped catches, Hampshire at Edgbaston early in the summer.

“When you get into a position to win a game you have to really nail it,” Clarke said. “The home game against Hampshire was an example where we didn’t do that. We dropped catches and, if we had caught them, even that one win would have made so much difference to the table. We might be looking at it now and thinking ‘can we win it?’

“As it is we are one of probably four sides striving to avoid that one relegation spot alongside Worcestershire. So it’s going to be a scrap and we have got to strive for every single point.

“We have a good side and a good squad which shouldn’t be in Division Two so we have to fight every inch of the way to make sure we are not there next year.”

Clarke knows that victory over Worcestershire cannot be taken for granted despite the turmoil surrounding the New Road side on and off the field.

“The Worcestershire game is massive for us,” he said. “They have had a tough time of it but, you never know, they could get on a bit of a run and fight back. We have got to play well.

“Let’s hope the weather is good because losing so many overs to the rain this year has made it hard to win games, although it has probably helped us out at times too. Also, I’ve been shocked at how flat a lot of the wickets have been round the country, so we’ll see what we get this time.”